any mcat book has the later clues for a huge portion of science. I plan on revamping my science knowledge for quiz bowl as soon as I take the MCATs this week (thursday).

The funny thing is, that review has helped me a lot in chemistry (for quiz bowl). I once did all my friend's online chemistry homework for a week after 6 beers (disclaimer: I do not condone underage drinking, just drinking and studying), but I didn't know the names of any of the formulas and concepts, just how they worked.

For actual MCAT, Examkrackers is the best stuff publicly available for prep (on paper). If you can get your hand's on Princeton Review's workbooks, that's also suppose to be the best.

I guess Kaplan is really good for quiz bowl, in which understanding the formula difference between bulk and Young's modulus is important. On the actual MCAT, you get all the not super basic formulas in the passages.

Nalin
Scranton Middle School (2000-2003)
Brighton High School (2003-2007)
Michigan State University (2007-2011)
Semi-Retired (2012-present)

any mcat book has the later clues for a huge portion of science. I plan on revamping my science knowledge for quiz bowl as soon as I take the MCATs this week (thursday).

The funny thing is, that review has helped me a lot in chemistry (for quiz bowl). I once did all my friend's online chemistry homework for a week after 6 beers (disclaimer: I do not condone underage drinking, just drinking and studying), but I didn't know the names of any of the formulas and concepts, just how they worked.

For actual MCAT, Examkrackers is the best stuff publicly available for prep (on paper). If you can get your hand's on Princeton Review's workbooks, that's also suppose to be the best.

I guess Kaplan is really good for quiz bowl, in which understanding the formula difference between bulk and Young's modulus is important. On the actual MCAT, you get all the not super basic formulas in the passages.

Somewhat related to the discussion on the Eddas...I just finished the Kojiki and would NOT recommend it for help in learning Japanese myth, at least the edition that I checked out from the library (tr. Philippi, 1968). First, the 2nd half of it is on things that never come up (i.e. post-Jimmu legendary emperors) and seems to be mostly a list of names to give legitimacy to various families during the Nara period, along with a bunch of dudes killing their brothers and singing about it.

The first half (the true "myth" portion) -- again, at least in this edition -- uses Old Japanese spellings for most of the kami (e.g. Susanoo is "Take-paya-susa-no-wo-no-mikoto") and while it isn't too hard to figure out who they are, it's a lot tougher to figure out the common quiz bowl names of some of the more obscure figures and objects (not immediately obvious that "Opo-Kuni-Nusi" is a guy that is more well-known as Okuninushi).

I don't want to discourage anyone from reading it but "quizbowl-wise" it is less than ideal.

Cheynem wrote:These are the books I own and consult for my own question writing (which means, I suppose, they're helpful for quizbowl):

*An Incomplete Education by Judy Jones and William Wilson. Okay, this is out of date and it's not really that good, but it has some helpful lists with flash points, and it's at least a reasonable foundation.

*Edward Knappman's "Great American Trials" and "Great World Trials." These contain short, highly readable summaries of important court cases in history.

*The Norton Anthology of American Literature (and other Norton ones, I only own American). While they certainly contain any number of excerpts and short stories, you can learn a lot from reading the quick, informative biographical sketches written about the authors.

*William Safire's Political Dictionary. A lexicon filled with important political history facts.

*I read Shakespeare for Dummies a lot in high school and got a few points off of it.

I highly recommend the Norton Anthology Series. They're very well written and they get straight to the point. Helpful for Quiz Bowl, Read them at your library.

jonah wrote:I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons have been—independent of their merits, or lackthereof, as literary works—very worthwhile for quizbowl purposes. Most of the history is poor/inaccurate, but the art is mostly solid. I've gotten points on tons of different art topics: Bosch, Fragonard, Bernini, Leonardo, Pei, Michelangelo, specific works by all of them, and more that I can't think of off the top of my head.

Seconded. Simply remembering art from the Da Vinci Code in particular (especially Da Vinci works) has got me more powers this year than is probably fair.

I'm only a little ways into it, but The Rest is Noise has some very good stuff on 20th-century music so far. Plus, there's a fine companion website with clips of everything referred to in the book.

Douglas Graebner, Walt Whitman HS 10, Uchicago 14
"... imagination acts upon man as really as does gravitation, and may kill him as certainly as a dose of prussic acid."-Sir James Frazer,The Golden Bough

The Books Who Wrote What When and Who Won What When are good for less experienced lit players.
Frank N. Magill has published several good works for studying about different commonly asked literary works.
Also, the Annotated Mona Lisa is not bad for visual art.

Dave Breger wrote:I'm only a little ways into it, but The Rest is Noise has some very good stuff on 20th-century music so far. Plus, there's a fine companion website with clips of everything referred to in the book.

!

I probably should borrow that from my orchestra/AP Music Theory teacher now, if one of my teammates has given it back already.

Jasper Lee
University of Tennessee
The Ohio State University '14
Solon High School '10

Great thread. Okay, here's my opinions; Bulfinch rules on myths and anybody what doesn't think so is sorely mistaken in their ideology. I do love me some Eddas, but methinks Bulfinch is more concise. I'm all about the Great Courses and their monthly advertisement-magazines with lecture excerpts are some of my favorite reads. I force my players at knife-blade to read them. Science News is a great clearing house of current and past knowledge about science for those who choose to dabble. The pre-2006 Guiness Books of World Records, before they went all USA-today style flash, are awesome for general knowledge of pert near everything. Wallenchinsky's People's Almanacs and Book of Lists are entertaining and informative. Reader's Encyclopedias are neat, too - the older the better. Finally - how's about Asimov's books of just pure trivia? I used to love those as a young knowledge-seeker.

There was this book I had as a kid called "The Super Trivia Encyclopedia" by Fred Worth. It was full of inaccuracies and was in love with bizarre pop culture of the 1950's, but I wish I had it now because it really offered lots of great info on Americana.

ppreston wrote:Great thread. Okay, here's my opinions; Bulfinch rules on myths and anybody what doesn't think so is sorely mistaken in their ideology.

Then call me mistaken. For Greek: go read the Metamorphoses, Theogony, and the Iliad and Odyssey. For Norse: many more players nowadays have read the Eddas.

Oddly enough, the Illiad and Odessy don't seem to have helped me enormously. The Theogony is quite good for pleasure reading study. Graves is good mainly because it's easier to look stuff up in from tournament notes but still very, very through.

Douglas Graebner, Walt Whitman HS 10, Uchicago 14
"... imagination acts upon man as really as does gravitation, and may kill him as certainly as a dose of prussic acid."-Sir James Frazer,The Golden Bough

Understanding Poetry by Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren. This tome of New Criticism should be accessible to anyone who wants to improve their poetry knowledge. Not only does It have 300+ poems that it either analyzes or provides hints for you to analyze, it also builds the analytical attitude within you, helping you to better appreciate and to retain knowledge of any individual poem. I seriously love this book.

every time i refresh i have a new name wrote:Understanding Poetry by Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren. This tome of New Criticism should be accessible to anyone who wants to improve their poetry knowledge. Not only does It have 300+ poems that it either analyzes or provides hints for you to analyze, it also builds the analytical attitude within you, helping you to better appreciate and to retain knowledge of any individual poem. I seriously love this book.

every time i refresh i have a new name wrote:Understanding Poetry by Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren. This tome of New Criticism should be accessible to anyone who wants to improve their poetry knowledge. Not only does It have 300+ poems that it either analyzes or provides hints for you to analyze, it also builds the analytical attitude within you, helping you to better appreciate and to retain knowledge of any individual poem. I seriously love this book.

grapesmoker wrote:Halliday and Resnick is a good general freshman physics text. I forget the title of the book, but those are the authors, you can look it up on Amazon.

It's called Fundamentals of Physics. Buy the "extended" edition which is only one volume as opposed to the whole thing which stretches out over two or three books. I just bought a used copy online for ten bucks and older editions are even cheaper.

MLafer wrote:Somewhat related to the discussion on the Eddas...I just finished the Kojiki and would NOT recommend it for help in learning Japanese myth, at least the edition that I checked out from the library (tr. Philippi, 1968). First, the 2nd half of it is on things that never come up (i.e. post-Jimmu legendary emperors) and seems to be mostly a list of names to give legitimacy to various families during the Nara period, along with a bunch of dudes killing their brothers and singing about it.

The first half (the true "myth" portion) -- again, at least in this edition -- uses Old Japanese spellings for most of the kami (e.g. Susanoo is "Take-paya-susa-no-wo-no-mikoto") and while it isn't too hard to figure out who they are, it's a lot tougher to figure out the common quiz bowl names of some of the more obscure figures and objects (not immediately obvious that "Opo-Kuni-Nusi" is a guy that is more well-known as Okuninushi).

I don't want to discourage anyone from reading it but "quizbowl-wise" it is less than ideal.

I whole-heartedly agree with this, and want to add that the Nihongi is exactly the same way. They are by far the two most disappointing books I've ever purchased for quizbowl purposes.

I also found the Koran somewhat esoteric/confusing and got a lot more mileage out of secondary sources (websites of mosques were surprisingly clue-dense and readable), but maybe I just picked up a bad translation.

Isaacbh wrote:Came across a book called 100 Decisive Battles, by Paul Davis. It seems pretty good; there's a preview on Google books.

This one has definitely gotten me some tu's. I recommend this too.

So do I. I found it most helpful on ancient battles and on battles from Manzikert up to WWI. The fact that each battle is summarized in about 1,500 words means that the descriptions are relatively dense. Not all of the battles listed are helpful, because they're chosen by the author's idea of decisiveness rather than their notability, but many of them come up in quizbowl.
EDIT: Added some detail.

MLafer wrote:Somewhat related to the discussion on the Eddas...I just finished the Kojiki and would NOT recommend it for help in learning Japanese myth, at least the edition that I checked out from the library (tr. Philippi, 1968). .

I whole-heartedly agree with this, and want to add that the Nihongi is exactly the same way. They are by far the two most disappointing books I've ever purchased for quizbowl purposes.

MLafer wrote:Somewhat related to the discussion on the Eddas...I just finished the Kojiki and would NOT recommend it for help in learning Japanese myth, at least the edition that I checked out from the library (tr. Philippi, 1968). .

I whole-heartedly agree with this, and want to add that the Nihongi is exactly the same way. They are by far the two most disappointing books I've ever purchased for quizbowl purposes.

In that case, what's good for Japanese myth?

If you can swing it, the back portion of "The Eternal Self and the Cycle of Samsara" by Pandharipande is a good starting point for Hindu, Shinto, and a few other Asian religions/myth systems.

So i'm not too sure if this has been asked yet, but what are some good books for Astronomy? I mean I've seen more Astronomy books at Books-A-Million and Barnes and Noble more than anything regarding the science field, but what is one that is particularly an excellent text for quizbowl and general interest purposes?

Zach Foster
North Myrtle Beach High School class of 2009
George Mason University class of 2013

Lucy Lane wrote:So i'm not too sure if this has been asked yet, but what are some good books for Astronomy? I mean I've seen more Astronomy books at Books-A-Million and Barnes and Noble more than anything regarding the science field, but what is one that is particularly an excellent text for quizbowl and general interest purposes?

If your college library has the "Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics," I would recommend that. It assumes familiarity with basic physics (by which I mean the standard undergrad curriculum), so it's not written for the high school level, but the astronomy sections are very accessible.

Inkana7 wrote:Does anyone have any suggestions for books to get one a nice base knowledge of Ancient Greco/Macedonian history? I'm looking to get into that area of history and I want to know where to start.

I read the first half of Alexander to Actium as a sophomore in HS and eight years later I am still answering Diadoch War tossups and Antigonus Gonatas bonus parts because of it.

The book does go on long digressions about art and philosophy, which I found annoying, but I guess it could get you non-history questions as well.

For a broad overview of history, I strongly recommend the Encyclopedia of World History, 6th edition, ed. by Peter Stearns. I bought my copy used, I believe, so it's definitely floating out there. It comes with the book on CD, which is convenient, and is great for understanding timelines. Never again will you confuse the Buyids with the Samanids!

grapesmoker wrote:For a broad overview of history, I strongly recommend the Encyclopedia of World History, 6th edition, ed. by Peter Stearns. I bought my copy used, I believe, so it's definitely floating out there. It comes with the book on CD, which is convenient, and is great for understanding timelines. Never again will you confuse the Buyids with the Samanids!

Thanks! I just ordered a copy for $10.

Bruce, your suggestion was a bit out of my price range, so I'll try to find it at OSU's library when I get down there.

FlamingPiWalrusWizard wrote:How about books for British history? Also, does anyone know if AP Euro prep books (PR/Barron's) cover this subject well for quizbowl?

For the most part, books used for AP classes are not that good. I found David Thompson's (Thomson's? don't recall) history of Britain pretty good. For military history, there's a fat book out there called "The Warrior Race" by Lawrence James (I think) which I haven't read but looks pretty interesting.

That's obviously missing a late-medieval and a 19th-century book, but I haven't read any of the recent surveys in those fields; Miri Rubin's book, which I haven't read yet, is probably what to look at for the late middle ages.

The reviews I've seen of the Lawrence James book Jerry mentioned have not been all that great (which is, of course, in no way a referendum on its potential utility for quizbowl). For British military history, I'd recommend Chandler and Beckett, The Oxford History of the British Army, and for the navy the twovolumes by N.A.M. Rodger.